It's been raining here steadily since early, early Saturday morning and likely won't stop until sometime tomorrow. So, I ran at the gym yesterday, 3 miles to finish week 3 of my half plan. I bought a bicycle trainer at Goodwill, but haven't cleared out a spot for it in the house yet.

@Just_Ceci good luck with the trainer, prefer being out rather than inside on a trainer but I do have the advantage of less extreme weather than you. Hope the weather turns for the better soon.

@moyer566 some nice mileage there, just be careful as the snow turns to ice.

I think I might have got my mojo back, at last a run at sensible paces and heart rates. As usual I detested the first 1.5 miles and was fatigued in the last mile but the rest was great. That and at last being able to cook decent poached eggs, things are looking up. Started week 0 of the UM plan, just trying to get decent mileage in. Also signed up to a trial of Strava premium, not convinced it is worth 4GBP a month. Other than some fancy heatmaps and graphs it has not told me anything I didn't already know. Oh well see whether it shows me anything over the next 27 days

ran 5.37mi in the snow this morning. it was slow going but it was nice. it wasn't as peaceful as i hoped. everyone was up dealing with this snow. it was heavy and took a long time to clear

Haven't been feeling great for the past few days. I suspect the come down after finishing at work has hit me fairly hard and while it's not been all that busy over Xmyth the cumulative fatigue has got to me.

Notwithstanding that, I got myself a new pair of trail shoes from Wiggle in their sale, £65 instead of £120. Took them out for a nice little 6km with the dog today and had a really good session. A 4mm drop and quite a low stack height mean a very high level of feel for the ground, and good grippy soles meant the mud just wasn't a challenge at all.

I'm aiming to use them for at least the first marathon this year, possibly the later ones as well depending on the weather conditions.

Last sessions of the year, yesterday went for a ride rather than a run, never got up early enough and when I got some spare time the weather was truly awful. Still got out for a while and realised that if I have the road bike, I do need neoprene booties to keep my feet dry. My feet were absolutely soaked, when I got in and took the bike shoes off, I just stood in a puddle.

Today went out and did the long run I intended yesterday, the first HM distance since doing the Nottingham marathon. It was slow, 11 min miles, so bang in the middle of my zone 1, recovery pace. I started out faster than that but slowed down after about 3 miles. I had a bit of mind games around 6 miles that lasted until 10 miles, but I have come to realise that I always end up doubting my ability to finish. I need to develop a stronger mental framework to be able to survive the Ultramarathon in June 2016 and the training before it. Something to work on for 2016. Had a short bike ride to finish off the day.

So 2015 has been an interesting year, 4 half marathons done including my first, my one and only marathon, an offroad duathlon and a supersprint road duathlon. I’ve accumulated over 1200 miles running and managed over 1400 miles on the bike since early August. If asked back in February 2014 if I could do any of this I would have said no. It is amazing what the right motivation and attitude can do alongside the support from you guys on mfp and the people around me at work and home.

I wish you all well and hope you have a great 2016, I intend to continue to do things that will amaze me.

Happy new year

And MM can you resize your pictures before posting them in future, cheers mate

Should have added also finished 19 parkruns, with a little encouragement from Taeliesyn without whom I would never have started and 2 volunteering stints. A genuine thanks mate.

Numbers 20 and 21 today, the only day in the year you can double up. Legs are feeling the impact of a lot of Christmas miles including the HM distance yesterday. A slow 27:30 at the first and realising how I was seizing up I took the 2nd gently by starting at the back with the intention of getting round sub30. Done with 20 seconds to spare. Negative splits and a good game of ropey dope or what some people call fishing. Picking another runner and then reeling them in. The first mile had me posting a 31min 5k. However have friends and family coming later today so enjoying what most people did last night. Have fun everyone.

Or should I say "you can run but you can't hide?" Blew that one!

Great, actually! I'm still super slow, but I'm okay with that. I'm on w13d3, trying like mad to get 3 runs a week in but it's getting colder and snowier so it's getting harder. My 2016 goal is to run my first HM in October... I'm up to about 5.5mi runs now, so I think it's a reasonable goal. And you, how're you progressing @ftrobbie?

MimiOfTheLusciousLawn wrote: »

Great, actually! I'm still super slow, but I'm okay with that. I'm on w13d3, trying like mad to get 3 runs a week in but it's getting colder and snowier so it's getting harder. My 2016 goal is to run my first HM in October... I'm up to about 5.5mi runs now, so I think it's a reasonable goal. And you, how're you progressing @ftrobbie?

Great thanks, picked up an injury 3rd quarter and spent the 4th quarter feeling sorry for myself but the christmas break has allowed me to get back to running and recovering. It's good to see you setting a goal for yourself and a HM in 9 months time is definitely doable with the right plan

romyhorse wrote: »

I'm running again! Signed up to a local FB group to run every day in December. I only lasted one day. But I have finally got my mojo back and have a 10km race in March. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and injury free 2016!

Glad to see you back too, hope you can stay injury free. Have fun

For me third parkrun in 2 days today, multiple equipment failures put the run between the two yesterday, may get the long run done tomorrow and looking forward to the rest day on Monday. I know I am pushing my limits because I did not wake until 0700 this morning, I am normally up around 0500. My body is telling me something and I might listen to it on Monday.

Enjoy yourselves everyone, nose back to the grindstone on Monday.

MimiOfTheLusciousLawn wrote: »

Or should I say "you can run but you can't hide?" Blew that one!

romyhorse wrote: »

I'm running again! Signed up to a local FB group to run every day in December. I only lasted one day. But I have finally got my mojo back and have a 10km race in March. Wishing everyone a happy, healthy and injury free 2016!

Good to see you back at it!